Vegas Vocalizes the Vows
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and ninety-eight:  abc 22 of 26  While New Directions was bound for Sectionals, Carl and Emma went to Las Vegas...


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 23rd cycle. Now cycle 24!_

_**ALPHABET 2.0** - So nearly a year ago (HA!) I had done a set of stories taking inspiration by words, three for each letter of the alphabet (started with Acapella, Audition Arts in mid-February and every other day to April). Well now I wanted to do something like that, but using the alphabet another way. Instead of random words, I made sentences, all with those same letters (you'll see). The first half was in cycle 22, now here's the second half in cycle 24!  
**TODAY:** (22 of 26) V is for..._

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**"Vegas Vocalizes the Vows"  
Carl/Emma **

They hadn't planned it. Looking back, it might have seemed that way, and if it dawned on her, even a little, then maybe it had dawned on him, too. If it did, then neither of them said anything. He'd told her about this conference for dentists and other professionals from that field, and that he'd decided not to go this year. But when he'd seen the way this whole thing with Schuester and the competition was weighing on her mind, he'd decided she needed a change of scenery. He wanted to surprise her, a concept with a possibility of danger, when she was involved, but he risked it.

The flight was an adventure in and of itself. She tried to look calm and collected as they drove to the airport, but it was revealed as pretence when they walked in and her legs started shaking so much that he had to support her as they walked along. She ended up taking a couple sleeping pills, making the journey disappear. It ended up being helpful for his plan to surprise her with Vegas, which proved successful when she saw where they were and thought they'd taken the wrong plane, growing frantic for a moment until he explained what was going on.

She was curious. Las Vegas had always seemed foreign, a bit magical, but so not the kind of place she'd ever see herself, just imagining the messes people left behind; 'whatever happened' stayed there… But now there she was and she wanted to make the most of their time there.

They had a hotel room much cleaner than anticipated, which could immediately soothe some of her concerns. So once they had settled in they changed, just in time for dinner and a show. They had one of the best evenings, the kind they would remember for years and years. After the show they had gone back to the room, and she had told him to go sit out on the small patio, wait for her. She took a couple of things from the mini bar, careful in her choices, grabbed a blanket and went to sit with him, covering their legs before handing him his half of her small loot.

"Thank you," he smiled, putting his arm around her shoulders. It was quiet, as quiet as it could be with the sounds of the city that never slept, but the night swallowed a lot of it. It was peaceful, allowing them to hang on to the feelings of the evening.

"Thank you," she returned, looking at him. It wasn't until then that she really got what this trip had been about, what he'd protected her from. He kissed her forehead, and she breathed. Looking back, they'd both recognize that moment as 'when they knew' what they'd do that night.

After sitting there for over an hour, they felt like walking, so they left the hotel, and… they walked. They way she held on to his arm at first, he wasn't sure if maybe she was scared of what they might encounter, but then he understood: she was in awe, and that tight hold was the only way she could be sure not to get lost along the way… and then she tripped. He kept her from falling, but still it got them to stop.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yes," she laughed. "I'm fine," she told him.

When she looked up and saw where they'd stopped, it was another kind of pause altogether. Carl looked as well, with about the same reaction. They weren't sure how to respond, but then neither of them moved. They just stood there, hand in hand, in front of the chapel… Looking at one another, it was right there on their faces… not a fear but curiosity, a desire…

"My mother would lose it…" were Emma's first words, and Carl smiled.

"Well it's not like we have to…"

"N-no, I know, I…" she looked back to the chapel. "I mean, it's crazy, we haven't…"

"How about this… If we were to go in there, we'd have whatever they tell us to say, so out here let's just say our piece, and after that if it's what we want, then we'll go…" She quietly nodded, so he turned to face her, boldened by her smile. "I know I'm ready, though. You're so much more than me, every day, and I love that about you; I love you. And if you tell me I get to spend the rest of my life that way… Oh, I'm sold," he shook his head with a smirk. She was blushing as she spoke.

"I think I know, too… You've been so patient with me, so understanding… I guess I needed time to understand really where I was now, after the last year or so, and I… I like the way things are going, I want them to keep going that way, I… I love you, too, and I… I want to stop looking to the past… The present is beautiful… the future sounds even better," she bowed her head, then looked at him. "Think it'll be Elvis?"

"I don't know," he laughed. "Why, is that something you…"

"Oh, well, I just thought, if we were going to do this, might as well have fun with it…" He agreed, then…

"So… are we doing this?" he asked. One more reflection…

"We are."

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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